Best of The Gazette, March 25: Water, jobs and basketball

UW-Whitewater’s Reggie Hearn, left, is overcome with emotion with teammate Alex Merg, right, after winning an NCAA Division III college basketball championship game Saturday, March 22.

The Gazette publishes a lot of news in a week. Combine that with all the distractions a weekend brings, and that means there's a good chance you might have missed some important stories. Here's a look at of some of The Gazette's best content from the last week or so:

How does the groundwater that we depend on for slaking thirst, watering crops and taking showers get there? Is it an endless supply? How vulnerable is it to pollution? Truth is, when it comes to water, Rock County is spoiled, News columnist Anna Marie Lux writes.

The January unemployment rate for Rock County was 7.9 percent, higher than 6.9 percent reported in December but below the 9.3 percent tallied in January 2013. Analysts said the increases are not surprising, given the cold and stormy month that came on the heels of the Christmas hiring season.

With 4.9 seconds to go, UW-Whitewater's Quardell Young converted a 3-point play to lift the Warhawks to a 73-72 victory in the NCAA Division III national championship game Saturday. It was the fourth Division III national championship in school history. “I'm thrilled for these guys,” Warhawks coach Pat Miller said.

Whether on the basketball or volleyball court, everything came up golden for Brodhead High's Carly Mohns. Though the second-ranked Cardinals lost Friday to top-ranked Neillsville in a WIAA Division 3 state semifinal game, she will certainly go down as one of the finest female athletes in Rock Valley history. “A player like Carly comes along once in a lifetime,” Brodhead girls basketball coach Brad Pickett said.

The city finds itself in trouble mainly because it wasn't transparent, The Gazette Editorial Board writes. Madison attorney Bob Dreps, an expert in media law, says the Janesville City Council ignored Wisconsin's open meetings law when it picked a site for a new fire station in closed session last November. The vast majority of those discussions—if not all of them—should have been open to the public.

A Wisconsin judge has ruled the federal privacy act does not require cities to black out personal information from police reports. This is good news for government transparency advocates, The Gazette Editorial Board writes. Law enforcement redactions had become a troubling trend.

On "The Voice," Megan Ruger is recognized for her strong voice, tattoos and mohawk hairstyle. In Lake Geneva on Friday, the 2005 Badger High School graduate took on a different subject: Education. “Definitely finish school and have a back-up plan because music is not a for-sure thing,” she told the students.

It might feel as if you have driven to the middle of nowhere, but Palmyra's Trout House is downright chic, restaurant reviewer Joan Neeno writes. If you're into farm-to-table meals, this is about as close as you can get.

A week or so ago, it was so cold that video blogger Glen Loyd's camera wouldn't focus correctly. But after a long, cold winter, spring has returned. Look no farther than the melting ice of the Rock River.

The explosion of technology seems to be steering us in opposite directions when it comes to helping motorists pay attention to their No. 1 priority, Gazette Opinion Editor Greg Peck writes. With the introduction of wearable computers such as Google Glass, things could get even worse.